The Patriot Act was supposed to be designed to help protect us against terrorist activities but the only thing it actually
does is take away our constitutional rights, wipe away the bill of rights, any rights that we might have ever had and make
us an enemy of the state.

See a table of contents below for the Patriot Act and click on the link provided for the entire Patriot Act.

News

Court Orders FBI to Release PATRIOT Act Information. A federal judge has ordered (pdf) the FBI to publicly release or account for thousands of pages of information about the government's use of PATRIOT
Act powers. EPIC filed a Freedom of Information Act request (pdf) for the documents nearly eight months ago, just as Congress announced it would hold hearings on sunsetting PATRIOT
Act powers. The hearings ended in June, and Congress is expected to vote on a finalized PATRIOT renewal bill within days.
According to Judge Gladys Kessler, "the record shows that [the FBI's] efforts have been unnecessarily slow and inefficient."
For more information, see the EPIC PATRIOT Act FOIA Litigation Page. (Nov. 17, 2005)

Lawyers Call for Patriot Act Oversight. A letter (pdf) from the President of the American Bar Association to Members of Congress considering Patriot Act renewal states that the ABA is "concerned that there is inadequate Congressional
oversight of government investigations undertaken pursuant to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to ensure that such
investigations do not violate the First, Fourth, and Fifth Amendments to the Constitution." See ABA Resolution on FISA and EPIC's FISA page for more information. (Nov. 10, 2005)

EPIC FOIA Documents Show Possible Patriot Act Abuses.Documents (pdf, 3.1 mb) obtained by EPIC under the Freedom of Information Act describe thirteen cases of possible FBI misconduct in
intelligence investigations. The documents were released by the Bureau in response to an EPIC open government request (pdf) for information about the FBI's use of provisions of the PATRIOT Act. EPIC has written a letter (pdf) to the Senate Judiciary Committee highlighting the need for the Attorney General to report to Congress on potentially
unlawful intelligence investigations. For more information, see EPIC's PATRIOT FOIA Litigation page. (Oct. 24, 2005)

Senate Committee Fails to Approve Expanded FBI Authority. In a closed meeting yesterday, the Senate Select Committee
on Intelligence did not reach consensus on legislation that would reauthorize sunsetting provisions of the USA PATRIOT Act
and increase the FBI's investigative powers. EPIC had urged the committee in a statement to carefully consider each sunsetting provision of the USA PATRIOT Act before voting to reauthorize, and not to expand the
FBI's investigative powers unless the agency can show a need for more authority. EPIC also joined more than twenty organizations
opposing an expansion of FBI authority to allow the law enforcement agency to demand records in national security investigations with
no judicial approval. For more information, see EPIC's USA PATRIOT Act page. (May 27, 2005)

To deter and punish terrorist acts in the United States and around the world, to enhance law enforcement investigatory
tools, and for other purposes.Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States
of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE AND TABLE OF CONTENTS.

(a) SHORT TITLE- This Act may be cited as the `Uniting and Strengthening
America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism (USA PATRIOT ACT) Act of 2001'. (b) TABLE
OF CONTENTS- The table of contents for this Act is as follows:

Sec. 908. Training of government officials regarding identification and use of foreign intelligence.

TITLE X--MISCELLANEOUS

Sec. 1001. Review of the department of justice.

Sec. 1002. Sense of congress.

Sec. 1003. Definition of `electronic surveillance'.

Sec. 1004. Venue in money laundering cases.

Sec. 1005. First responders assistance act.

Sec. 1006. Inadmissibility of aliens engaged in money laundering.

Sec. 1007. Authorization of funds for dea police training in south and central asia.

Sec. 1008. Feasibility study on use of biometric identifier scanning system with access to the fbi integrated
automated fingerprint identification system at overseas consular posts and points of entry to the United States.

Sec. 1009. Study of access.

Sec. 1010. Temporary authority to contract with local and State governments for performance of security functions
at United States military installations.

Sec. 1011. Crimes against charitable americans.

Sec. 1012. Limitation on issuance of hazmat licenses.

Sec. 1013. Expressing the sense of the senate concerning the provision of funding for bioterrorism preparedness
and response.

Sec. 1014. Grant program for State and local domestic preparedness support.

Sec. 1015. Expansion and reauthorization of the crime identification technology act for antiterrorism grants to
States and localities.